July 24, 2012

Head coach Mike Riley acknowledged that OSU has had a couple of disappointing years which he hopes to turn around. He described the conference as being as competitive as he has ever seen it.

Riley indicated that QB Sophomore Sean Mannion is the starter but that he is pleased with what he has seen from junior Cody Vaz. He also acknowledged that he wanted 1,800 yards worth of rushing production - whether it was from a single back or running back by committee.

Seniors WR Markus Wheaton and CB Jordon Poyer both lamented last season's 3-9 record and stated it would be used as a strong motivation for improvement this year.

Riley acknowledged that Oregon had raised the bar for everyone in the conference as USC had done before.

CAL

Coach Jeff Tedford expressed confidence in his offense having a 3,000 yard passer (Zach Maynard), 1,000 yard receiver (Keenan Allen), and 1,000 yard running back (Isi Sofele). He noted that Maynard had early struggles last season, which he believed were mostly about game management, but developed later in the season.

Tedford felt it was significant that home games were back at Memorial Stadium this year after playing in San Francisco last year.

Tedford discussed having spoken with coach Bill Belichick and studying the New England Patriots tight end packages. Tedford noted that Richard Rogers was a talented new tight end at Cal and that the tight ends and running backs had to step up to take some of the pressure off of star WR Keenan Allen.

WASHINGTON

Head coach Steve Sarkisian stated that he felt "good" about the depth at running back despite the loss of Chris Polk to the NFL. Sarkisian noted that the last 4 years have revealed "incremental" progress for the Huskies.

Sarkisian was directly asked if it was ethical to have assistant coach Tosh Lupoi recruit for Washington the day after he was recruiting the same athletes for Cal. Sarkisian indicated that this was the way college football worked in today's world but that the intent was not to "steal" players from other schools.

QB Keith Price acknowledged he was "still learning things" and specifically noted game management as an area he wanted to work on.

Coach Sarkisian noted that true freshman Shaq Thompson had not been with the team but will be primarily on the defensive side of the ball.

On the topic of defense, CB Desmond Trufant expressed confidence in the unit's speed, while Sarkisian believed that new Defensive Coordinator Justin Wilcox might have a "Dwayne Walker" type influence on his team (referencing the former UCLA Defensive Coordinator's success several years ago).